After a few false starts in other directions, Breslin began his career as a publicist, and over time, his client list reads like a Who's Who in Opera, with a few other big-name entities as well. He worked with -- and for -- conductors, instrumentalists, musical organizations and other artists, some of them non-musicians. There is a two-plus page listing of his clients, plus a discography of not only Pavarotti, but some of the other artists with whom he worked, as well as a very comprehensive index in the book.

It's fascinating to follow the careers of these two men -- so different from, yet so dependent on, each other. The tid-bits of gossip about the inhabitants of the operatic world were delicious, almost as much as the ever-present descriptions of food.